Notes from the Far Fringe

Before I begin today’s piece, I want to invite those of you not on Facebook to check out my posting of yesterday’s hymn, because it generated a fascinating discussion about the use of doxologies and changing them up. I am so happy when people engage my meandering thoughts on the songs we all think we know.

Now – approaching this one led to an interesting train of thought. Hop on… which requires first reading the lyrics, by Ken Patton:

Let those who live in every land
declare that fear and war are done —
joined by the labor of their hands,
in love and understanding, one.

I first thought, “huh, we really do have a lot of war and peace songs in this hymnal.”

Then, “well, this hymnal was developed at the end of the Cold War, when we talked about war and peace a lot.”

And then, “even so, this is a pretty odd thing to sing for a regular doxology. But maybe it wouldn’t have been then.”

And then, “interesting, we don’t talk much about that anymore. War seems so distant.”

And then, “oh wait. We are still at war. Have been engaged in war for thirteen years.”

And finally. “Oh crap. We forgot about it. I forgot about it. And now we could be facing a new war.”

And then, I turned back to the doxology:

Let those who live in every land
declare that fear and war are done —
joined by the labor of their hands,
in love and understanding, one.

And I thought, “Maybe we need to sing this every week again and remember we’re still at war abroad, as well as at home. Maybe we need to make declarations of peace across the board.”

Maybe. Maybe.

(Also – I instinctively sang this to Tallis Canon.)